USA > South Carolina > History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, Vol. I pt 1 > Part 11
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BOOK THIRD.
CHURCHES IN CHARLESTON AND ITS VICINITY. A. D. 1685-1700. CHAPTER I.
DURING the fifteen years immediately following the revo- cation of the Edict of Nantes, a number of events occurred intimately connected with the religious interests of the prov- ince. One of the most interesting, if not tending to the per- manent growth of the Presbyterian cause so much as could be desired, was the emigration of our persecuted brethren of France. As this immediately commenced, and was continued down to the close of the century and after, it will be first pre- sented, without tracing with entire accuracy its successive
* Yet her son, Gabriel, became wealthy in the next generation, and loaned 220,000 dollars to the American Congress to carry on the war of Independence. t See also the escape of La Fontaine .- " Huguenot Family," pp. 111-121.
101
ORIGINAL SETTLERS.
1685-1700.]
stages, though there are a number of specific dates, well ascer- tained, which determine the year in which various families arrived.
Among the original holders of lots in Old Charles-Town, on the west side of the Ashley river, who had removed from the attempted settlement at Port Royal, were Richard Batin, James Jour, and Richard Deyos. These were probably French protestants, who, having fled to England for asylum, came with the first colonists, under the guidance of Sayle. There are grants of land to French emigrants previous to the removal of the government to Oyster Point-the site of New Charles- Town. One, for example, to Jean Bullon, August 11th, 1677; to Lydia Barnott, and Jean Bazant and wife, September 7th, 1678; orders of survey and location of five hundred acres for Pierre Bodit, in 1678; of one thousand acres for Samuel Buttall and wife, in 1682; a grant of seventy acres to Mary Batton (wife of Jean Batton), ci-devant Mary Fosteen, in 1683.
We find a sale, by the proprietors, to Nicholas Longuemar, of one hundred acres of land ; to James Le Bas of three thousand, in 1685; to Joachim Gaillard of six hundred acres, in 1687 ; to Bartholomew Le Roux, in 1690 ; to James Boyd, who had been instrumental in the settlement of French Prot- estants in Carolina, and been at great expense in establishing a vineyard, three thousand acres, in 1694. On record, in the Secretary of State's office, Charleston, is a deed of contract executed in London, February 25th, 1686, between Arnold Bruneau, Lord (Seigneur) of Chaboissière, and Paul Bruneau, Lord of Ruedoux, of the one part, and Josias Marylan, Lord of La Forcet, of the other part, for the erection of a mill in South Carolina, with a clause inserted that said mill may be erected on the land of either party without prejudice to the interests of the other. In a "Liste des François et Suisses Refugiez, sur Santy en Caroline," which is preserved in Charleston, is found the name of Paul Bruneau de Ruedoux, son of Arnold Bruneau de la Chaboissiere, a native of Rochelle; which would seem to indicate that the settlement of the French on the Santee dates back at least to 1685 or 1686. About the same time, Anthony Cordes, un médecin, arrived in Charleston. He was a native of Beziers, in Languedoc, a city which had been the asylum of the Albigenses in the thir- teenth century, and the funeral pile of sixty thousand of those persecuted men. He was the ancestor of several families bearing this name. He was a resident of St. John's, Berkley,
102
ISAAC MAZYCK.
[1685-1700.
where he died in 1711-12. His wife's name was Esther Ma- deline Baluet, who was the sister, it is conjectured, of Judith Baluet, the wife of Benjamin Marion. James Cordes, a brother of Anthony, died in the year 1758. Isaac, another brother, died in St. John's, Berkley, where he resided; and John, still another brother, whose only memorial is the inventory of his estate, dated in the year 1757. " Isaac Mazyck, the an- cestor of the numerous and respectable families in South Carolina bearing the name, arrived at Charleston, with many other Huguenot refugees, from England, in December, 1686. His father, Paul Mazyck, or Paul de Mazyck, was a native of the Bishopric of Liege, in his religious faith a Walloon. The name is said to have been originally attached to the family, as a nom de terre, derived from that of a town in the province in which they resided ; and was no doubt originally written -- 'de Mazyck.' Paul married Elizabeth Van Vick (or Van Wick), of Flanders ; his descendants therefore are not of French origin. He removed to Maestricht, in the Netherlands, and afterwards to St. Martin, in the Isle de Re, opposite La Rochelle. The name was changed to Mazicq, agreeably to the French idiom. The German orthography was resumed by the emigrant to South Carolina. Stephen Mazyck emigrated to England, thence to Ireland, and resided many years in Dublin, where he died. Isaac fled from France to Amsterdam. He was a wealthy merchant, and succeeded in transferring to that commercial city the sum of £1500 sterling. From Amsterdam he went to England with his funds ; and sailed from London with an interest in the cargo of £1000. This investment enabled him, in Charleston, to lay the foundation of the wealth which he afterwards acquired, and which he liberally dis- pensed in aid of the religious and charitable institutions of the city." He is believed to have been one of the founders of the Huguenot church in Charleston, to which he left in his will £100; the interest of which he directed to be paid annually forever for the support of a Calvinistic minister of that church. In his family Bible, under date of 1685, is this record : " God gave me the blessing of coming out of France, and of escaping the cruel persecution carried on there against the Protestants ; and to express my thanksgiving for so great a blessing, I pro- mise, please God, to observe the anniversary of that by a fast." Other emigrants of the same period were Peter Poinsett, Gabriel Guignard, " who emigrated soon after the repeal of the Edict of Nantes, with the Gaillards, Trapiers, Manigaults, and others,-and who gave the city of Charleston a street
103
REV. ELIAS PRIOLEAU.
1685-1700.]
which still bears his name,"-Philip Gendron, and indeed a large list of names, yet carefully preserved.
"There were nearly a thousand fugitives," says Weiss, though there may perhaps be some mistake in the number, "who successively embarked for Carolina, in the ports of Holland alone, and under the eyes of the Count d'Arvaux, who carefully informed himself of their designs, and neglected nothing for the purpose of thwarting them." "More than a hundred persons," the Lord de Tillieres, the most cunning and best instructed of his agents, wrote him in 1686, " are buying a frigate, half resolved on going to Carolina ! I can assure you she will contain more than 1,200,000 livres." He added, some days after, "I have spoken to Sieur la Clide, refugee captain in this country, some of whose relations are going in her to Carolina. He tells me that there will be about four hundred persons resolved to fight well in case of attack, and to set fire to the vessel should they be reduced to the last extremity. Provided the money be saved, the loss of their persons would be no great one." "Messieurs les Carolins," he wrote again, " have bought a hundred and fifty guns and muskets, fifty musquetoons, and thirty pair of pistols, at
Utrecht.
These gentlemen cannot accommodate
themselves with a vessel in this country. There is one carrying fifty cannon, which has been chartered for them in England." "Our Carolinians of Amsterdam are about to join themselves with those of Rotterdam, to the number of one hundred and fifty. They have two barks at Rotterdam, in which they are going to England. At London they have many associates who are going to Carolina. They will load them with Malmsey wine, and other merchandise, in the island of Madeira. The two barks, and their ship of from forty-five to fifty guns, which they have chartered in England, will be manned by four hundred well armed persons. If your vessels would lie off the coasts of the island of Madeira or Lisbon, it would be a great affair."*
The Rev. Elias Prioleau, ancestor of the family of that name, left Pons, in France, in April, 1686, some six months after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and brought with him a considerable number of his congregation. The following sketch of his earlier history has been compiled from the
* Report of Tillières to the Count d' Arvaux. French ambassador to Holland, June 7th, June 12th, June 26th, 1686, in Weiss, Freneh Refugees, vol. i., p. 338. For the preceding, see Lit. Gaz., Presbyterian, 1850.
104
RESTRICTIONS ON THE PASTORS.
[1685-1700.
History of the Churches of Pons, Gemozac, and Montagne, in Saintonge, written in the French language, by Rev. A. Crottet, pastor of the Church at Pons, and published in 1841. His father, Samuel Prioleau, son of Elisha Prioleau,* sieur de La Vienneric, had been Pastor at Jonzac in 1637, and at Niort in 1642, and succeeded Jean Constans, a minister of singular ability and virtue, with whom he had been associated, as col- league, for some years, and who died in 1650. The first years of the pastorate of Samuel Prioleau were passed in tranquillity, but the state of things was changed when the clergy and the Jesuits, who had become all-powerful at the Court of Louis XIV., entered upon their schemes for abrogating the muni- ments which the edict of Henry IV. had thrown around the Reformed. One after another, with considerable intervals between, its provisions were infringed, even under the appear- ance of carrying the edict into execution, till the Protestants were deprived of all means of protecting or exercising their ecclesiastical rights. Under these circumstances Elias Merlat, Pastor at Saintes, made overtures for the assembling of a Synod at Pons, to concert means for removing the obstacles interposed to the exercise of the Reformed worship. It met on the 25th of June, 1667, and Prioleau filled the office of Moderator.
Meanwhile, their enemies attempted to deprive this worship, and the pastors, of all symbols of outward dignity. The title of pastors was denied them, and they were called simply ministers of the pretended or self-styled reformed religion (R. P. R.) They were prohibited from wearing their clerical robes, or to appear in long habits, outside of the houses of worship. The use of bells was forbidden except in garrisoned towns. They were forbidden to sing psalms in public, or at the execution of criminals, or on days of public rejoicing. Funerals could only take place at the break of day or in the early night, and this without any address or exhortation from the pastor. The national and provincial synods were re- quired to forbid pastors from preaching, except in the places of their residence, cutting off thus from small congregations annexed to others, the exercise of public worship.
* So Crottet. Some American authorities make him the son of Antoine, or Antoni Prioli, who was elected Doge of Venice in 1618, and died in 1623, and suppose that the orthography of the name was adapted to the French idiom by the son on his becoming a citizen of France .- Histoire des Eglises Réformées de Pons, Gemozac, et Montange, en Saintonge, par A. Crottet, de Genève, Pasteur a Pons: a Bordeaux, 1841. The author of this interesting history now resides at Iverdon, in Switzerland.
105
ELIAS PRIOLEAU.
1685-1700.]
Samuel Prioleau had permitted to escape him in the pulpit some words which showed his indignation at these procedures. These were gathered up and commented on with no friendly spirit. After an imprisonment of more than a year, he was con- demned, in reparation of his pretended blasphemy, to pay a fine of six hundred pounds, five hundred of which went to tho Franciscans for the construction of their convent, on condition that they should pray on St. Paul's day and St. Peter's for the exaltation of the Holy Church and the Holy Father, the Pope, and should invoke the Lord for the extirpation of heresy.
Samuel Prioleau died February 17th, 1683, having exercised the ministerial functions in the town of Pons for thirty-two years.
Elias Prioleau was called to occupy his father's place by the Colloquy (Presbytery) met at Bazieux on the 4th of May, 1683. With a true devotedness he entered upon the perilous work confided to him. Many of his colleagues, of the neigh- boring churches, had been torn from their flocks, under various pretences. In spite of this he did not fear to place himself at the head of a church environed with so many dangers. He prudently strove with the Elders of the Consistory (Session) to conform to the royal orders. Proper measures were taken to send the titles of the church to Paris, and to deposit them with the Marquis of Chateauneuf, that they might be remitted to the Council of State. They caused, meanwhile, to be read in church, during many consecutive Sabbaths, the act of the last Synod, which excluded from the Supper those whom fear or worldly interests had induced to abjure the evangelical worship. They distributed tokens* to the communicants, which they must present on approaching the table. Fathers offering children for baptism, and god-fathers and god- mothers, were required to present themselves to the elders near the pulpit, before the ceremony, and establish, by certifi- cate or otherwise, their membership in the Reformed Church. On days of communion, seven or eight hundred persons par- took of the sacrament; alms and collections were abundant, and church dues were promptly paid, and discipline strictly administered.
But difficulties thickened around this devoted church and minister. All the churches of that neighborhood had been already annihilated. On the 10th of February, 1684, Du
* These were pieces of block tin, of the size of a sous, which usually bore on the obverse the comforting words-Luke, xii. 22-" Fear not, little flock."
106
ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ELIAS PRIOLEAU. [1685-1700.
Vigier, Councillor of the Parliament of Bordeaux, charged to take cognizance of the infractions of the edicts and declara- tions of the king in the department of Saintonge, repaired to Pons, and ordered all the papers which the Consistory might possess to be delivered to him. He associated with himself two monks of the Recollets (of St. Francis), as denunciators, witnesses, parties, registrars, or assessors. One, La Roussie, set himself to making extracts from all the sermons of Prioleau that he could hear of or procure, and put them into the hands of the deputy commissary, after he had spitefully distorted them. The other was Augustin Mayac, who, joining his efforts to those of his confrere, Du Vigier, was enabled, after an examination of eight hours, to collect sixteen heads of accusation against Elias Prioleau. Behold the heinous crimes with which he was charged! " 1st. That he had preached at Pons before being established there as minister. 2d. That he had baptized an infant of Mr. Marchais, privately baptized before by Saunier, the surgeon. 3d. That he had written a letter to M. St. Hilaire, to the address of Sieur Allenet à Saint-Jean, of which the original had been sent to the office of the commissary. 4th. That the daughters of Abraham Garnier la Crapusille had come to preaching at Pons since the abjuration of their father. 5th. That children of one named . Bernard Hoste had come to the church of Pons since their father became a Roman Catholic. 6th. That children of one named Richard Blanconnier had been conducted to preaching by their mother-in-law since the abjuration of their father. 7th. That a person named Bertin had come to preaching at Pons since the abjuration of her father, and since she herself had become Catholic. „8th. That the wife of one named Boursier, bastard of Mr. Fourestier La Brande, had come to preaching at Pons." Such is the character of the whole sixteen accusations. They could not furnish sufficient ground for a sentence against Prioleau, and he was restored to his flock.
It was, however, only to witness among them the deepest afflictions. The persecution, which had consisted in confisca- tion and imprisonment, now was carried out in acts of violence and barbarity. The Countess of Marsan signalized herself by an ardent fanaticism. She caused to be carried off, im- prisoned, beaten, and maltreated, those who declined conver- sion. She caused cruelties to be inflicted on persons of every age and sex, but devoted her attention particularly to the kidnapping of children from every quarter. Many men and
107
JEAN DE BRUNG AND JACQUES PASCALET.
1685-1700.]
women succumbed, after three or four weeks in prison. Many, however, resisted successfully, and regained their liberty. Even children sometimes carried their firmness further than one could dare to hope. Jean de Brung, an orphan, twelve years of age, persisted more than a month, though the domestics of the lady made him submit to a thousand tor- ments. They strove, above all, to prevent him from praying to God. At last they bethought themselves of the expedient of lowering him with cords into the privies, where they left him suspended, threatening to leave him to die if he perse- vered. The mephitic vapors he was constrained to breathe wore out his patience. One, named Jacques Pascalet, shut up in the tower of Pons, was thrown into a dungeon, where he could only breathe through a hole. The domestics of the Countess contrived to have the smoke of hay and wet straw penetrate there to suffocate him, and so convert him. This kind of suffering did not destroy his courage, and they con- ducted him to a chamber, where they made him turn around upon a table, constructed for this purpose, to produce giddi- ness. This exhausted his strength, and he fell to the ground in a species of com. From this he was aroused by the blows of his pitiless tormentors. He could hold out no longer, but finished by abjuring.
They complained to Du Vigier. He sent them back to the Countess. They next applied to the Parliament of Guienne, and, obtaining no satisfaction, presented their case to the king, but received no response.
Many instances of the like cruelty could be here repeated. The plan adopted by Louis XIV. or his confessor, the Jesuit, La Chaise, was followed. Missionaries were sent to Pons, with little success. These were followed by another kind of converters. Dragoons were quartered on families, to eat out their substance, and where these failed, they resorted to those manifold tortures of the body which we have recounted elsewhere. At length, Oct. 18th, 1685, the revocation of the edict ordained also the demolition of all the churches in the realm-the cessation of Protestant worship-required the min- isters to leave the kingdom in fifteen days ; required parents to present their children for baptism to the priests, under the penalty of a fine of five hundred pounds. The following November, the inhabitants of Pons belonging to the Reformed religion, received information of this edict. The greater part, fearing a continuance of these cruel persecutions, permitted themselves to sign a formula of abjuration which had been
108
ELIAS PRIOLEAU.
[1685-1700.
prepared in advance. Those who persisted, had the pain of seeing their children conducted to the mass, their daughters shut up in the convents of Pons and Saintes, and their sons educated by Jesuits. Others prepared themselves to quit a country where they could no longer serve the Lord in spirit and truth. Prioleau could not decide to abandon his flock, which was still so dear. He braved the danger, and organized secret assemblies. The 15th of April was the most dolorous day for the Protestants who had resisted all the ordeals of persecution. The house of worship was battered down. While their enemies were laboring at its demolition, Prioleau, who had assembled the people together, addressed them a most touching discourse, which they listened to flowing down with bitter tears.
Such is the account which Crottet gives of the pastor, Elias Prioleau. He adds the following words : " From this moment we are entirely ignorant what was the fate of this faithful minister. Perhaps he was the victim of his zeal and self- devotion, and finished his days upon the galleys of Rochefort, or else, seeing that his presence was a continual danger to those who furnished him an asylum, he took the resolution of withdrawing to a foreign country. However this was, while he was at Pons he did not cease to manifest the qualities and virtues of a true servant of God."
The last conjecture of M. Crottet is right. The sequel he did not know until the publication of M. Weiss's History of the Huguenots, in Paris, in 1853. He learned from that work that the pastor Prioleau had come to Carolina. He sought information respecting his descendants through foreign friends resident in New York, and the result was a correspondence between M. Crottet and Daniel Ravenel, Esq., of Charleston, who is a lineal descendant of Elias Prioleau. This corre- spondence was marked by kindness, and led to the conclusion on the part of M. Crottet that "the REFORMED CHURCH OF CHARLESTON is an offshoot of the church of Pons." Elias Pri- oleau then may be regarded as its founder, perhaps in con- junction with the Rev. Florente Philippe Trouillart, who were its first ministers. Mr. Trouillart was in Carolina in the lat- ter part of 1686. They served the church as colleagues, and probably without compensation, both ministers and people being dependent alike on secular employment. An additional fact tends to fix the existence of the French church in Charles- ton at a date as early as this. In the Secretary of State's office in that city is deposited the will of Cæsar Moze, a
109
ELIAS MERLAT.
1685-1700.]
French refugee, and written in French, bearing date June 20th, 1687, witnessed by Jacob Guerard and Isaac Lenoir, naming Samuel Boudinot as his executor, in which he be- queaths to this church of the Protestant French refugees in Charleston, "trente sept lieures" (thirty-seven livres) to assist in building a house of worship in the neighborhood of his plan- tation on the eastern branch of the T of Cooper river. There was, then, a church of French Protestants in Charleston, in 1687, fully organized, who could be intrusted with funds for the erection of a house of worship in the country, when it was felt to be needed.
The church of Pons, the former charge of Elias Prioleau, was annihilated. It had neither temple nor pastor. The greater part of its members had feigned a conversion far from their hearts. It was in this melancholy situation that they received a long letter from their co-religionists of Saintonge, who had left all, that they might go to a foreign country to find that freedom to worship God denied them in France. This epistle is addressed, "To our brethren who groan under the captivity of Babylon, to whom we desire peace and mercy on the part of God." It is a letter full of affectionate advice and faithful rebuke, uttered in eloquence of language and deep sincerity. We imagine it to have been penned by Elias Prioleau, though we have no certain evidence that this is the fact .*
The wife of Prioleau was the daughter of Elias Merlat, pastor of Saintes, before mentioned, who was a Huguenot minister of great reputation and merit, and shared in the common persecutions. He was arrested in July, 1679, on various frivolous pretences, the chief of which was that he had written a book in answer to one published by the cele- brated Arnaud, entitled "The subversion of the Morals of Jesus Christ by the doctrine of the Calvinists touching Jus- tification." [This book of Arnaud's was a tissue of dark im- postures, designed to show that the doctrine of the Reformed respecting justification, the perseverance of the saints, and the certainty of salvation, dispensed with good works, and promised salvation whatever crimes they might commit.] For his answer to this book he was convicted of sedition and heresy. The book of Merlat was condemned to be torn and burnt in front of the church by the common hangman. He was to retract the propositions which should be read to him,
* Extracts from this letter may be seen in Pres. Review for Oct., 1800.
110
PRIOLEAU'S WILL.
[1085-1700.
was placed under a perpetual interdict, and was fined 3,000 livres. From this sentence he appealed, but the appeal was quashed. He was condemned to be brought into court in irons, acknowledge that he had inconsiderately and maliciously writ- ten the book, and preached in terms contrary to the edict ; that for this he was very penitent, and implored pardon from God, the king, and justice. Prioleau, who had approved the book, and Rene Pean, the printer, were placed under censure. Otherwise Merlat was to be sent into perpetual banishment, to pay a fine of a thousand livres to the king, and six hundred to be bestowed in alms. Four days after this sentence Mer- lat was conducted into court, and after a short and respectful preface, in which he protested that he had never designed to scandalize any person, and that his conscience was not con- vinced that he had done aught in malice, and that he read the declaration which had been given him simply in the way of obedience, he complied with the terms of the sentence, and read the declaration. The conviction and sentence of this celebrated minister filled others with apprehension, for none regarded themselves safe from similar vexations, and it was not long before others were proceeded against in the same way .*
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